The present invention is directed to a hair curler with a clamping member, and more particularly to a hair curler including a barrel with an exposed heating element and a hair clamping member adapted to clamp hair to the heating element on the exterior of the barrel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A hair curler having an exposed heating element on a barrel about which the hair is wound for giving curls is known in the art such as proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 697,934 filed on Feb. 4, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,010 and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention. Another hair curler having a heating element on the exterior of a barrel and further including a hair clamping member is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,815 issued to Andis.
When the clamping member is utilized for clamping hair to the heating element on the exterior of the barrel, it is generally desired to supply a greater amount of heat to the hair held by the clamping member for giving a tight curl thereto. Although the provision of the exposed heating element is advantageous in reducing the heat energy requirement because of its direct heat transfer relation to the hair wound on the barrel, the exposed heating element is very likely to wastefully dissipate its heat to the clamping member located adjacent thereto, resulting in considerable heat loss and failing to give enough amount of heat to the hair intended to be tight curled. It is therefore mostly required that the heating element produces a greater amount of heat at one circumferential portion of the barrel located adjacent to the clamping member for concentrating the heat to the hair clamped or at least compensating for the heat loss thereat. In this respect, neither of the above prior art curlers provides a scheme of differentiating the amount of the heat to be produced at the portion adjacent to the clamping member from that at the remaining portion of the barrel.